The Nigerian Bar Association’s National Executive Council has decided to file a petition against the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and Mr Emmanuel Iyanna, Chief Magistrate in Abuja, who issued a search warrant for security officials to search the home of a Supreme Court Judge, Justice Mary Odili.
On Wednesday, a top NBA NEC member told The PUNCH that Malami would be reported to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, which would decide whether the AGF should lose his senior advocate title.
“What we discovered is that Malami is sanctioning a lot of the attacks on the judiciary.” Enough is enough, according to the NBA. As a result, the NEC will file petitions against Malami. “A communiqué will be issued soon,” said a member of the NEC.
Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), a human rights lawyer, confirmed the development to The PUNCH on Wednesday, saying a petition would be filed against Malami, while another would be sent to the Judicial Service Commission against the magistrate.
Adegboruwa, who attended the NBA NEC emergency meeting on Tuesday, expressed dissatisfaction with the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the AGF’s office’s denials of the raid on Odili’s home.
He also argued that the magistrate’s claim that he was duped into issuing the illegal search warrant by the Ministry of Justice was untrue.
“We do not accept the magistrate’s excuse that he was fooled,” the senior advocate said, “because no magistrate should put himself in a position where he could be fooled in any way.” And it is for this reason that we have decided to file a formal charge against the magistrate with the Judicial Service Commission.” The NBA has decided to do so. We resolved to file a formal complaint against the magistrate; we also resolved to file a formal complaint against the AGF; and we resolved to engage the NJC to protect judicial officers at our national executive council meeting yesterday (Tuesday).”
Adegboruwa pointed out that Malami’s office had formed several panels comprised of members of security agencies that act without the force of law.
He stated that the heinous trend would be put an end as soon as the NBA’s investigations were completed.
“This unfortunate incident has thrown up a challenge to the NBA and lawyers to X-ray the AGF’s activities, and we have agreed to set up an independent body to truly investigate each occurrence of these ad hoc panels that appear to be exercising judicial powers without any law setting them up and without any laid down procedures that you can use to checkmate the arbitrariness of these so-called panels and recovery bodies under the AGF,” he added.
“I am confident that by the time our panel issues its report, we will have informed Nigerians of the outcome of our exercise, but I can assure you that the days of these panels are numbered.” I can assure you that someone will be held accountable for the shambles created by these amorphous panels with no statutory backing or law establishing them.”
Adegboruwa claimed that magistrates who work hand in hand with EFCC operatives and policemen had abused search warrants, arrest warrants, and ex parte orders.
According to the senior advocate, magistrates sign blank warrants and hand them over to security agents, who then “fill in the blank spaces.”
“We have met with the relevant authorities in charge of the judiciary in the Federal Capital Territory, primarily the chief judge, and we have expressed our displeasure with the practice of magistrates signing blank arrest warrants, blank search warrants, and even blank ex parte orders to freeze the accounts of Nigerian citizens,” he added.
“They sign those papers, and the security agencies simply go and fill in the names of innocent Nigerians, freeze their accounts behind their backs, arrest them, and search their houses; so, we are taking a comprehensive step in this regard to reform the system to prohibit any magistrate or judicial officer from signing blank documents for the arrest of citizens, the search of citizens’ houses, or the freezing of citizens’ accounts.”
With a search warrant, security operatives stormed Justice Odili’s home on Imo River Crescent in Maitama last Friday.
The operation was authorized by the Joint Panel on Recovery in the Federal Ministry of Justice, led by Malami.
CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the operation’s commander, was also seen wearing an identity card allegedly signed by Malami.
However, Malami and the police have both denied knowledge of the operation, and Ajodo has been suspended by the police.
The magistrate later revoked the warrant, claiming that he was duped into issuing it in the first place.
In response, the AGF’s spokesman, Dr Umar Gwandu, stated that Adegboruwa’s claim that the AGF’s office under Malami was fond of creating panels arbitrarily was false.
Malami, he said, stood by his statement that the panel that orchestrated the raid on Odili’s home acted illegally.
“The onus is now on him who asserts to prove,” Gwandu said. It is tantamount to conjectures and fabrications for someone who is supposed to be learned to make statements that are devoid of substance. It is a great disservice to the proposition positing if claims cannot be supported by convincing proofs and clear examples. Was an asset recovery panel established by the AGF? There is, without a doubt, none.
“In what ways, if any, are panels set up by the federation’s attorney general and chief law officer, whose mandates and responsibility to serve the public interest are constitutionally guaranteed, illegal to the extent of carrying out extrajudicial operations?” It is abundantly clear that there is no such thing as the Assets Recovery Panel in the AGF’s office.
“Those who went to any length to concoct a name using deceptive letterhead and apparently mischievous email and location address can go to any length, including forging a government official’s signature.”
In response to reports that the NBA was planning to file a petition against the AGF, Gwandu stated that the AGF’s committee was comprised of seasoned professionals.
He did, however, state that the NBA would be premature in filing a petition against the AGF while security agencies were still investigating the matter.
“Members of the committee will not be dancing to the tune of mischief makers to appease the whimsical aspersions of certain individuals,” Gwandu added.
“By saying ‘to take action against the AGF,’ it becomes confusingly pre-emptive, antithetical to doctrines of fair hearing and presumption of innocence, prejudicial, conclusive, and leaves no room for further investigation at a time when the matter is being investigated by relevant agencies.”
